Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-06-24
VOL. XIV.
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discourse Of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
"The Heavens Opened"
"The Heavens Opened"

Z
! 11ght hand Of God Then they cried out
trth loud rotce and stopped their
ears, and ran upon Him tcih one accord.
and cast him out of the city, and stoned
HIM and the lcitResSes laid dolVn their
| ctothsS at young mans feet, lchose name
,s,' "aS SUI 9e, Aua tley stoned StepheI' calling
! upon Goe, and saying, Lord Jesus, receire
my spirit Aild he kReeled do,Un, and cried
trtth loud eoice, Lord, lay net This sin to
| thetr charge. And tchen Re had said this,
he fell asleep. Acts VIII, $500.
stephen had been preaching O rousing ser.
mon, ana the people could not stand it, They
resolved TO do as men sometimes would Ike to
90 IN TINS day, If they dared, with some plain
preacher OF Righteousness skill him. The
only way to silence this man was to
knock the breath out Of him. So thay rushed
stephen out OF the gates of the city, and with
curse, and whoop, and below they brought
m MN 10 the cliHi as was the custom when they
wanted to take away Rec by stoning. Having
Drought him % the edge of the cliff they
pushed hlR OF. After no had fallen they
| came aIU looked down, and seeing that he
was ~. yet dead, they began to drop stones
ulN,n him. stone after stone, stone after stone.
! amid this rain of missiles Stephen chambers
! up o. his knees and folds his hands, while
The blood drlpS from his temples to bis checks,
from his cheeks TO his garments, from his gar
| menoS to the groundS and then, looking up,
| nc makes two prayers--one for himself and
one for his murderers. lord Jesus receive
my spirit" that was for himself ''Lord, lay
not this sin to their charge" that was for his
aSsallants' Then, from pain and loss of blood,
ne swooned away and fell asleep.
want to show you to-day five piStures
stephen gazing into heaven. Stephen look
| ing at Christ, stephen stoned. Stephen in
MS dylhg prayer. Stephen asleep.
p First, look at Stephen gazing into heaven,
betoro you take leap you want to know
Wtlere you are going to land, Before you
climb ladder you want to know to what
point the ladder reaches. And it was right
that Stephen within few, moments of
heaven, Should be gazing into It, We would
all do well to be found in the same posture.
There is enough i'll heaven to keep US gazing.
[ A man OF large wealth may have statuary in
the hall, and paintings In the sitting-room,
anq ana works OF art III allparts of the house, but
lie has the chief pictures in the art gallery,
and there, hour after hour, you walk with
catalogue and glass and ever increasing ad-
mlration, Well, heaven is the gallery where
| God has gathered the chief treasures Of His
realm The whole universe is His palace In this
lower room where We stop there are many
adornments; tessellated floor of AMETHYST
and BLOSSOM and on the winding cloud-stairs
are stretched out canvas on which commingle
azure, and purple, and tfron, and gold
But heaven is the gallery In which the chief
glories are gathered There are the brightest
robes. There are the richest crowns. There
are the highest exhilarations. John says of
IT,; The kings of the earth shall
brmg their honor and glory into it.n
And see the procession forming and in
the line come all empires, and the stars spring
up INTO an arch for the hosts to march under
lhey keep step to the sound of earthquake and
the pitch of avalanche from the mountains,
and the flag they bear is the fame Of a con-
Suming world, and all heaven turns out with
harms oFN0tc o111 taNxT ,,nl
examination OF angelic dominion to welcome
Them In, and SO the kings Of the earth bring
thelr honor and glory into it. Do you Won
DER that good people often stand like Stephen,
looking into heaven2 We have great
many friends there. There is not
man in this house to-day so
| Isolated in life, but there is some one in
heaven with whom he once shook hands. As
a man gets older, the number of his celestial
acquaintance very rapidly multiplies. We
nave not had one glimpse of them since the
night we kissed them goodbye and they went
away; but still we stand gazing at heaven.
AS when some of our friends go across the
yea, we stand on the dock, or on the steam
tug, and watch them and after awhile the
nulk OF the vessel disappears, and then there
Is only patch of sail on the sky, and soon
That Is gone and they are all out of sight
ana yet we stand looking in the same
direction; so when our friends go
away from us into the future world we
Keep looking down through the Narrows and
gazing and gazing as though we expected
mat they would come out and stand on some
evening cloud, and give US one glimpse Of
thelr bhssful and transfgured faces. While
you long TO join their companionship, and the
years and the days go with such tedium that
phey break your heart, and the viper Of pain,
and sorrow and bereavement keeps gnawing
at your vitals, you still stand. like Ste.
Olen. QnZinO itntn bAaNran
II they have changed since you saw them last.
You wonder If they would recognize YOUR
face now, so changed has it been with trouble.
You wonder if, amid the myriad delights
they have, they care as much for you as they
used to when they gave you helping hand
and put their shoulder under your burdens
Iou wonder il they look any older: and some
time, in the evening tide, when the house is
all quiet, you wonder if you should call them
by their first name if they would not answer
and perhaps sometimes you do make the ex-
pertinent and when no one but God ard your.
self are there you distinctly call their name.
and listen and wait, and sit gazing into
heaven.
Pass on now and see Stephen looking upol.
Christ My text says he saw the Son Of Man
at the right hand of God Just how Christ
looked In this world, just how he looks in
heaven, we cannot say. A writer in the time
OF Christ says describing the Saviours per-
dJJ6IduCe, UlluJ udu DUO eyes
light complexion, and very graceful struct-
ure; but l suppose 1t was all guess-work.
The painters of different ages have tried to
imagine the features of Christ, and put them
upon canvas; but we will have to wait until
with our own eyes we see him and with our
own ears we can hear Him. And yet there
IL way of seeing and hearing Him now.
l have to tell you that unless you
see and hear Christ on earth, you
will never see and hear Him in heaveni
Lookl There he is Behold the Lamb of
God. Can you not see Him2 Then pray to
God to take the scales off your eyes. Look
that way-try to look that way. His voice
comes down to YOU this day-comes down to
the blindest, to the deafeSt soul, saying:
Look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth, and
be ye saved, for | am God, and there is none
else" PROCLAMATION of universal emancipa-
tion for all slaves Proclamation of universal
amnesty for all rebels Ahasuerus gathered
the Babylonish mobiles to his table; George /.
entertained the lords of England at BAN
guet; Napoleon III welcomed the Gar of
Russia and the Sultan of Turkey to his feast;
the Emperor of Germany was glad to have our
minister, George Bancroft, sit down with
him at his table; but tell me, ye who know
most of the worlds history, what other king
ever asked the abandoned, and the forlorn,
and the wretched, and the outcast, to come
and sit down beside himi O, wonderful in
vitationl You can take it to-day, and
stand at the head of the darkest alley in all
his city. and say: "Comel Clothes for
your rags, salve for your sores, throne FOR
your eternal reigning." A Christ that talks
like that, and acts like that, and pardons
like that-do you wonder that Stephen stood
looking at Him3 | hope to spend e:arnity
doing the same thing. / must see Him,
must look upon that face once clouded
with my sin, but now radiant with my
pardon. want to touch that hand that
knocked off my shackles. l want to hear
that voice which pronounced my deliverance.
Behold Him, little children, for If you live to
three score years and ten you will see none
SO fair Behold Him, ye aged ones for He
only can shine through the dimness of your